Why did my job cut in the wrong place on the board? (XY datum and offset problems)

Why this happens

1. XY Datum mismatch: Job Setup lets you put the XY origin at any corner or the center. If the file says center but you zeroed the machine at the lower-left corner, the whole job shifts by half the job size.
2. A stray "Use Offset" value in Job Setup silently shifts everything. Gotcha: a negative offset moves the material relative to the datum, not the datum itself, so it usually shifts the cut the opposite way people expect.
3. Profile cutting on the wrong side of the vector makes parts come out shifted or undersized by a bit diameter (see the wrong-side profile entry).

The fix

1. Open Job Setup (Edit > Job Size and Position) and confirm the XY Datum position (corner vs center) matches where you physically zero X and Y.
2. Check "Use Offset" is 0,0 unless you deliberately set it.
3. Sanity check trick: add a Drilling toolpath on a point at (0,0) and look where it lands in the preview. It shows you exactly where the file thinks your origin is.

Pro tips

• A corner datum (lower-left) is the most foolproof convention for beginners. A center datum shines for round or centered work like clocks and lazy susans.
• If the shift is small and diagonal rather than exactly half the job, suspect the machine lost steps instead. See the "cut doesn't match the preview" entry.